Hot ticket: "Black Hawk Down" screened for battle's birthday

Next week brings the anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu, which if you are in Washington, D.C., you can observe by watching the film “Black Hawk Down,” followed by a discussion with a retired Marine colonel who watched history happen.

The Institute of World Peace is hosting a screening this Friday with Col. Fritz Barth (ret.), an expert on urban warfare, human intelligence gathering and the Horn of Africa.

Barth was there in 1993 as the deputy director of USCENTCOM Intelligence Support Element II, Mogadishu. More recently, he was the plans officer for Multi-National Forces – West, Iraq. Now he’s a consultant.

If you can’t make it, here’s a reading list. There’s Mark Bowden’s famous book, of course; Roger Sangvic, with the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, which details the battle’s policy and operations failures in his 1998 monograph; and there’s Peter Bergen’s “Holy War, Inc.” explores alleged links between the Somalian fighters and al-Qaeda.

Or if you’re looking for more of a personal perspective, here’s the word from Keni Thomas, an Army ranger who served in The Battle of Mogadishu-turned country musician., via YouTube.